Prism (TV channel)

PRISM (Philadelphia Regional In-Home Sports and Movies) was a 24-hour premium cable television channel intended for cable customers in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania metropolitan area. Housed in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, the channel was launched by Spectacor. Unlike other services, PRISM provided a substantial number of exclusive games for the Philadelphia Flyers, Philadelphia Phillies, and Philadelphia 76ers, which enabled it to last far longer than many other regional premium channels. PRISM also offered a selection of new and old movies, but the main attraction was the sports coverage.

PRISM broadcast both through cable systems and, for a time, through a scrambled over-the-air signal on WWSG-TV 57. This lasted through 1985, when that station was sold and converted to a free-to-air independent station.

PRISM also aired several original shows, many based on sports, such as Broad & Pattison (which is the South Philadelphia intersection of the city's sports complex) and The Great Sports Debate. The channel also aired some non-sports programming such as Prism Kids and Live At Rafters, created in a 1993 revamp that saw the channel modernize its look and attempt to spice up all non-sports programming.

By 1989, PRISM was owned by Rainbow Media and launched a companion basic cable channel, SportsChannel Philadelphia, which affiliated with Rainbow's SportsChannel America network (which evolved into an affiliation with Prime Sports, which in turn evolved into Fox Sports Net). The channels, however, had separate graphic and music packages and announcing teams until 1996, when all sports presentation was made uniform.

In 1996, Comcast purchased the Flyers and Sixers, with the intent of forming a new all-sports network centered around those teams, effectively driving a stake through the heart of PRISM and SportsChannel. After a year of uncertainty that included plans for PRISM and SportsChannel to become Fox Sports Net channels, Comcast, Liberty Media, and Rainbow came to an agreement. PRISM and SportsChannel closed for good on October 1, 1997, but with designated successors: PRISM would give way to Liberty's Starz! movie channel, and the new Comcast SportsNet took on SportsChannel's affiliation agreements with FSN.

PRISM's legacy is noteworthy because Comcast SportsNet continues to use PRISM's infrastructure of only broadcasting via microwave and fiber optics. A controversial FCC guideline implemented to encourage investment in local programming states that a television channel does not have to make its shows available to satellite companies if it does not use satellites to transmit its programs. This guideline has allowed Comcast to block Satellite TV providers from carrying Comcast SportsNet. Consequently, satellite penetration in the Philadelphia area is much lower than in other cities.